All Quiet on the Western Front (1979 film)

All Quiet on the Western Front
DVD cover
Genre	Drama War
Written by	Paul Monash
Directed by	Delbert Mann
Starring	Richard Thomas Ernest Borgnine
Music by	Allyn Ferguson
Country of origin	US/UK
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Martin Starger Ron Carr
Producer(s)	Norman Rosemont
Cinematography	John Coquillon
Editor(s)	Alan Pattillo Bill Blunden
Running time	150 minutes / 129 minutes (theatrical release)
Production company(s)	Norman Rosemont Productions Marble Arch Productions ITC Entertainment
Distributor	CBS
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	November 14, 1979
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

All Quiet on the Western Front is a television film produced by ITC Entertainment, released on November 14, 1979, starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. It is based on the book of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

The 1979 film was directed by Delbert Mann. It has its share of tension and death, and in the spirit of the novel, manages to convey a sense of desolation, hardship and waste. Late in the film, the turmoil and wretchedness of the main character, Paul Baumer, is manifested in his extreme disassociation while home on furlough.

Most of the filming took place in Czechoslovakia.

Plot

Paul Baumer, during World War I, enlists in the German army with many of his high school friends, after being indoctrinated by their teacher (Donald Pleasence) as to the glory and superiority of German culture. After surviving training camp under the brutal Corporal Himmelstoss (Ian Holm), the young men board a troop train bound for the front lines. Ominously, at the same moment, they notice another train arriving in town loaded with returning wounded soldiers, who are carried off on stretchers. Once at the front lines, they are placed under the supervision of Stanislaus "Kat" Katzinsky, (Ernest Borgnine). Kat teaches them how to best take cover, how to find extra food, and other survival skills. When Paul and his battalion return to a French town for a rest week, they see the new recruits have grown younger and younger. To their delight, the leader of these new recruits is their recently demoted training officer, Himmelstoss. When Himmelstoss tries to make them obey him, they stand up to him. Later in the trenches, while the Germans are launching an offensive attack, he sees a squad cowering in a crater, which includes Himmelstoss. Paul pushes Himmelstoss to force him to keep on the offensive.

The French and German armies are shown attacking each other repeatedly over a few hundred yards of torn, corpse-strewn land. Paul's friend Franz Kemmerich is wounded, and soon dies in a crowded army hospital attended by nuns. Paul returns to the trenches with his troop, distraught by his friend's death.

When a French soldier falls into a trench Paul is hiding in, Paul stabs the man in the stomach with his bayonet, and Paul is forced to spend the night with him. Paul tries to bandage the dying soldier's wounds, but he dies anyway. Paul escapes the trench, stricken with guilt. Another comrade, after falling into a pit of poison gas, is carried off by the medics to a slow, painful death; the medics had appeared before Kat could put him out of his misery.

Although at one point, Paul and two of his friends do have their first sexual experience with some accommodating French peasant girls, the vast majority of all the young men's experiences are horrific. One by one, practically all of Paul's other schoolmate friends die, one way or another. A haughty, stiff Kaiser Wilhelm II visits their camp to ceremoniously pin medals on heroic soldiers, which includes Himmelstoss.

Paul's squad are bombed in a French town close to the front, where one of his friends dies and another is severely wounded. Paul, who is also wounded, is granted leave. When home on leave, Paul is told by his sister that their mother (Patricia Neal), is dying of cancer. In visits to a beer garden and his former classroom, Paul realises that his town's older men, in their enthusiasm for war, have no sense of the horrors they have sent their youth to. He also visits Kemmerich's mother and lies to her that he did not suffer. Just before the end of the film, Kat is wounded by an artillery burst and Paul carries him many miles to a field hospital. Only at the hospital does Paul discover that Kat has died during the journey.

Paul writes a letter to his friend, Albert Kropp, the sole survivor of their class, who is now an amputee. After finishing the letter, Paul walks through the trench checking on the younger soldiers, having taken up Kat's position as a mentor. He spots a bird and begins to sketch it, and when the bird starts to fly away Paul stands up to see where it went, exposing himself above the trench parapet. A lone sniper's shot rings out, killing him. A telegram with the film's title is shown to the viewer, revealing a segment from a report issued by the German High Command, only weeks before the war's end.

Cast

• Richard Thomas as Paul Bäumer
• Ernest Borgnine as Stanislaus Katzinsky
• Donald Pleasence as Kantorek
• Ian Holm as Himmelstoss
• Patricia Neal as Paul’s Mother
• Paul Mark Elliott as Josef Behm
• Dai Bradley as Albert Kropp
• Matthew Evans as Friedrich Muller
• George Winter as Franz Kemmerich
• Dominic Jephcott as Peter Leer
• Denys Graham as Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• Mark Drewry as Tjaden
• Colin Mayes as Westhus
• Ewan Stewart as Detering
• Michael Sheard as Paul’s Father
• Katerina Lirova as Paul’s Sister
• Mary Miller as Mrs. Kemmerich

Production

Norman Rosemont had to pay Remarque's widow, Paulette Goddard, $100,000 for the film rights.

Reception

The film won a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Motion Picture Made for TV as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special.

Theatrical and home video releases

The original 150 minute US TV version was edited and received a limited worldwide theatrical release. The resulting 129 minute version was the one subsequently released on open matte (4:3 aspect ratio) VHS videos and DVDs. Commencing with the 2009 UK Blu-ray, all DVDs and Blu-rays feature the original, unedited version. All of these, bar the 4:3 UK (ITV) and Australian (Beyond Home Entertainment) Blu-rays, are also in the film's original widescreen aspect ratio.

External links

• All Quiet on the Western Front at Rotten Tomatoes
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)(TV) at IMDb
• All Quiet on the Western Front at AllMovie